This story originally appeared on BaseballProspectus.com. To read more notes on Baseball Prospectus' top 101 minor league prospects, please read the original story here.

This list was conceptualized and constructed in late December, and finalized and submitted for the Baseball Prospectus annual in early January. I have avoided it ever since out of revisionist fear. When this particular list was created, the Baseball Prospectus prospect crew was only two months into the team top 10 lists, having found our rhythm in the process but only scratched the surface of all the talent in the minors. With countless emails, calls, texts, IMs, letters, and Candygrams exchanged between members of the BP team and members of the baseball industry, we played prospect Nostradamus and worked ahead of the team lists, spelunking for information like we had never spelunked before. It was a stressful time, but also one of the most rewarding of my career, a daily debate about prospects that consumed all available energy and intellect. It was a prospect boot camp, and I loved every second of it.

Fast-forward two months, and I'm still thrilled with the rewards of the process and the overall plus-plus quality of the work; that conviction will never waver. But I’m also aware of the realities of such a project and saddled with the occasional second thought; not because the list is rife with unexplainable error or incompetence, but because appetite and approach evolve with each new influence, conversation, and exchange of information. At the time of construction, we had more than 100 names for the final 50 spots on the list, and you can make a reasonable and articulate case for each player’s inclusion. We picked up our phones, touched our fingers to keys, and put our collective heads together and carved out the following list, which I’m honored to stand by. That’s not to say that I haven’t thought about tweaks or trims...

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